The Standup Life

Over the past month, we’ve been sharing collections of classic stories from the archive of The New Yorker, including some of our favorite Profiles, love stories, and theatre pieces. Now we turn to comedy, with a collection of seven classic articles about comedians, exploring everything from the boundary-pushing creativity of the comic mind to the powerful impact of personal loss on a comedian’s work.

In “Angry Middle-Aged Man,” James Kaplan recounts Larry David’s path from failed standup comic to wildly successful small-screen curmudgeon. Hilton Als’s “A Pryor Love” examines how Richard Pryor redefined standup for a generation, while Julie Hecht’s “Was This Man a Genius?” describes her friendship with the experimental comedian Andy Kaufman. In “A Couple of Eccentric Guys,” Calvin Trillin follows the illusionists Penn and Teller in their earlier days, as they captivate and enchant new audiences. Zoe Heller’s “Don’t Call Me Sir” profiles legendary comedian Don Rickles and the history of insult comedy, while Dana Goodyear’s “Quiet Depravity” responds to the demurely inappropriate stylings of Sarah Silverman. Finally, Lillian Ross’s “Workouts” is a brief, vibrant portrait of the late Robin Williams.

We hope you enjoy these pieces as much as we do—and that you’ll follow the magazine on Facebook and Twitter, where many of our contributors will be recommending their favorite stories.

Joshua Rothman, the ideas editor of newyorker.com, has been a writer and an editor at the magazine since 2012.

Throughout the summer, we’ll be sharing collections of stories from the archives of The New Yorker. This week: television.

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.